Halcyon
by stillgold
Summary: The frost crept in and layered that wooden heart. But when she breathed, he watched the frost lift and felt the air shift fifty degrees higher.


**A/N: **I found this intercepted and hidden under a stack of many other "SasuSakus." It was inspired by the first snowfall of the year.

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ will never be mine, but one can keep wishing.

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_The way a crow  
Shook down on me  
The dust of snow  
From a hemlock tree_

_Has given my heart  
A change of mood  
And saved some part  
Of a day I had rued. _

-Robert Frost, _Dust of Snow_

The gift that Sakura got Sasuke was not a basket of tomatoes, but a thinly wrapped parcel, tied with a brown string.

He scowls for a second when she tells him, no, Sasuke-kun, I did not get you your tomatoes. But his baleful glare quickly passes when she says, but I did get you_this_, as she presses it into his reluctant hands.

He fingers it for a moment, the texture very coarse and different from fine silk or bamboo mats. He brings it to his nose and he can smell iron and metal, a kind of sake, very distinct and fermenting. There is also, he can conjugate, the smell of rain.

He loosens the ties, and the cloth unfurls back. He stares at an umbrella.

Sakura is quick to respond. _It's an umbrella! An English umbrella._

_It doesn't look like one._

_Of course it does. It's just not a parasol. You hold it like this._

For a second, he's reminded of an all too familiar snowy day ten years ago. If he closes his eyes, he can almost feel the storm brewing at the tip of his tongue. It's deliciously cold and numbing.

_But it's not raining. _

_She smiles and says gently, save it for a snowy day._

Sasuke realizes a few hours later, that his mother's favorite season was winter and wonders if she had said that wholly for this whole thing.

_It falls so it's not fierce and the_

_Taste is almost cathartic_

_Under this umbrella, we're momentarily_

_In a halcyon. Let the typhoon come._

He wakes up to the sound of rain. Eyes open automatically. Switch on. Robot walk. His ears prick for that sound. But then he looks out the window and sees the icicles. Drip, drop. The snow, miraculously is still falling, deep and thick. And his eyes avert to the umbrella, dry and untouched in the corner of his bedroom.

When Sakura wakes up, she wakes up to the sound of a doorbell ringing. She looks outside and sees the snow. And now, she has a pretty good feeling who's outside her doorstep.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun!"

"Aa." He fidgets uncomfortably, not used to being the one to show up in front of her house. He has one hand shoved in his pocket and the other hand behind his back. She craned her neck to see what he was hiding. He moved surreptitiously, hawk eyes on her every move.

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?"

"... Walk with me."

She stands there, still as a leaf, ready to tear apart from the branch and flutter away. Her eyes suddenly gleam in understanding. She nods.

"Wait a second; I just need to grab my coat."

He waits patiently under the roof, staring at a solitary icicle forming. He's taken aback when he feels someone jerking his elbow, and dragging him away into the other side of the forest.

"Well?" She grins good-naturedly.

He keeps walking but she doesn't. She pouts and gestures to him, pointing to the sky. "Don't let a lady get wet! Aren't you a gentleman?"

His back stiffens, and she tries not to laugh when he takes out the umbrella he still has hidden, now out open, and slides it over his head. The snow is still falling, ever so slowly, and there are white dots now, a pretty design on the blue umbrella.

"Get under here."

She almost smiles at his gruff tone because she can hear the fondness. She walks five steps and is immediately warmed. She takes his hand and they keep on walking.

"Tch. Annoying as usual."

This time she does smile, and when he sees it out of his peripheral vision, he allows himself a curl about his lips.

The snow patters softly onto the protective slick covering, and slowly transforms the English umbrella into a white mushroom.

The boy and the girl keep plowing ahead.

They are almost to the other town now.

Just a few more miles and the snow, oh the snow.

The snow keeps falling.

_The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep._

-Robert Frost, _Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening_

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**A/N:** Constructive criticism is appreciated (yes I know this is passive voice :p). Reviews are too. Oh wow! Look at that periwinkle button! Click it. 


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